Steam Now Offering Refunds "For Any Reason"

[XenoScifi]

I had to yell at my wife to come look because I thought I was seeing things. I read the new policy and I am shocked. I, being a long time Steam user, never thought I would ever see this. I have always been ultra paranoid at buying in Steam especially during a Steam sale where I could get a game at %25 off then 1 hour later it's 90% off somehow. Those days it was tough shit, now you can get a refund in this case as it states THIS IS NOT AN ABUSE OF THE SERVER. Holy hell Steam just turned a 180 IMO. Now, whether they begin to walk in that direction is another debate.

 

[BeerTent]

[
Very simple.
1) It's just a request, meaning you'll most likely have to go through Steam's customer service, which is hilariously bad. Last I checked it can take up to 48 hours for a response. If for some reason it takes more than a single request/response that 14 day window could come closing very quickly.

That seems not to be the case. On 4chan and other sites a few users have already tried the refund function.
Seems to be an automatic system. All the users got an replay with their granted refund in a few minutes.
Only thing, it seems you have to wait for up to 7 days till the money gets back to your steam wallet.

Even if it wasn't an automatic system, working within technical support, I've had to deal with tickets that were opened before the warranty end date all the time. Assuming the person you're dealing with isn't a total asshole, they'll see that the ticket was opened before the 14 day window, put two and two together, and process the refund.

As others have said. 2 hours of playtime is a miniscule window. That's my largest concern, and it's a perfectly valid one too, @Rattja . It took GTAV far longer than 2 hours to burn my video-card, and you can bet your ass I wanted a refund. I needed the money back to pay for a new card! >.<

 

[Eri]

[
Very simple.
1) It's just a request, meaning you'll most likely have to go through Steam's customer service, which is hilariously bad. Last I checked it can take up to 48 hours for a response. If for some reason it takes more than a single request/response that 14 day window could come closing very quickly.

That seems not to be the case. On 4chan and other sites a few users have already tried the refund function.
Seems to be an automatic system. All the users got an replay with their granted refund in a few minutes.
Only thing, it seems you have to wait for up to 7 days till the money gets back to your steam wallet.

Even if it wasn't an automatic system, working within technical support, I've had to deal with tickets that were opened before the warranty end date all the time. Assuming the person you're dealing with isn't a total asshole, they'll see that the ticket was opened before the 14 day window, put two and two together, and process the refund.

As others have said. 2 hours of playtime is a miniscule window. That's my largest concern, and it's a perfectly valid one too, @Rattja . It took GTAV far longer than 2 hours to burn my video-card, and you can bet your ass I wanted a refund. I needed the money back to pay for a new card! >.<

You say 2 hours is not long enough. Many say it is already overkill.

There are many non AAA games that are less than 2 hours in length. You could easily burn through the entire thing just to ask for a refund when you're done.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I'll definitely agree that 2 hours isn't enough time in some cases, but for most games it should be enough time to determine whether or not they're worth paying for.

I would want Valve to give you time based on an estimated time for completion. So for example if the developers say their game should take roughly 10 hours to complete, give the player 3 hours of refund time, if the developers say their game takes roughly 3 hours to complete, give the player 1 hour of refund time.

But what they're adding is definitely a step in the right direction, so I won't complain too much. Hell, I feel more comfortable buying games just knowing I can get a refund if I don't like it.

Edit: After reading the information page I realised it said that if for some reason you want to request a refund for a game that falls outside the 14 day/2 hour margin then you can do so, but a refund isn't guaranteed, Valve will simply take a look. Guessing that under certain circumstances like game breaking bugs 5 hours in for example might get you a refund.

 

[K12]

Well it was either this or start tightening up greenlight a bit and this is probably far less work.

Cynicism aside this is a really great (if well overdue) development.

I was very pleased to note that getting a refund so that you can immediately buy the game again on sale doesn't count as an abuse of refund. That's pretty good form on Steam's part.

 

[LadyMint]

I'm glad they've finally considered refunds. There are several games on my list I played for a few minutes before I realized I'd wasted money. Too bad the time limit on that is two weeks. They wouldn't even have to give me a full refund; I just want them off my library for good.

I'm assuming they'll be able to keep some sort of record/spreadsheet and produce a report that alerts them when someone is making constant refunds, or when a particular indie game is being constantly refunded. Those types of reports are very possible to produce regularly, so I wouldn't fear too much for the indie or short games. Maybe they could just exclude those types of games from the 2-hour window, or make an even shorter window for them. They won't know what adjustments to make until they give it a try at least.

 

[residentout1]

I can now try fallout 3 on Windows 7 to see if I can get it to work.
(are there any mods that will let me?)

 

[BeerTent]

[
Very simple.
1) It's just a request, meaning you'll most likely have to go through Steam's customer service, which is hilariously bad. Last I checked it can take up to 48 hours for a response. If for some reason it takes more than a single request/response that 14 day window could come closing very quickly.

That seems not to be the case. On 4chan and other sites a few users have already tried the refund function.
Seems to be an automatic system. All the users got an replay with their granted refund in a few minutes.
Only thing, it seems you have to wait for up to 7 days till the money gets back to your steam wallet.

Even if it wasn't an automatic system, working within technical support, I've had to deal with tickets that were opened before the warranty end date all the time. Assuming the person you're dealing with isn't a total asshole, they'll see that the ticket was opened before the 14 day window, put two and two together, and process the refund.

As others have said. 2 hours of playtime is a miniscule window. That's my largest concern, and it's a perfectly valid one too, @Rattja . It took GTAV far longer than 2 hours to burn my video-card, and you can bet your ass I wanted a refund. I needed the money back to pay for a new card! >.<

You say 2 hours is not long enough. Many say it is already overkill.

There are many non AAA games that are less than 2 hours in length. You could easily burn through the entire thing just to ask for a refund when you're done.

I'm not really sure what to say to those games, the indies that are less than 2hrs long. If you ask me, if you're able to burn through all of the content in less than two hours, then the game had better be cheap. Every game that is less than 2 hours in my library are arcade games, and if you can't be arsed to try a second time through an arcade game, well... that game has clearly failed. Every single game I have logged less than two hours, (And believe me, I've got quite a few indies and remakes in here.) can be put into three categories.

Games I really didn't enjoy, like Capsized.
Games I opened for Nostalga after the time recording began, like DoD.
Games I've yet to actually play, like Mark Ecko's Getting up: Contents Under Pressure (I honestly have no idea where this came from. It just appeared one day. Is it about Grafitti? Who is Mark Ecko? Should I try it? There's a dude wearing body armor?)

Even short games, games that could be beat in 2 hours if you know the tricks, Defcon, The Fall, FTL, Gunpoint, Hotline games, Interplanetary, Little Inferno, Poker nights, Portals... Aaah, I'm just gonna stop at this point. All of these games are really short in terms of the greater community, or they're arcade games. All of these games are logged over two hours for me. If you really played it, and enjoyed your time, you'll probably log well over 2 hours. Poker night has five hours? D-Did I leave it running by mistake one night?

Meanwhile, Games that I didn't enjoy, gave an honest shot, or otherwise didn't work in the end range from 70 minutes, to 3-4 hours. I spent 6 hours on GTA trying to get that to work, and when I want something to work, I put it through extensive testing. Planetary Annihilation has 4 hours. Not an iota of actual worthwhile gameplay. And for the love of god don't remind me of Kinetic Void and Starforge. Guns of Icarus, GoD Factory, Castle Story, Bad Company 2, and Devil May Cry 4 are also under the category of "Clearly didn't enjoy" but also under the category of "inexplicably over 2 hours.

I get that some indies may be abused by this, including a game that I'm working on. But if I can't hold someone for over two hours in my future game, I would have clearly failed.

 

[Ticklefist]

Wow. Valve and Steam delivering good news? Pinch me.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

FAILURE.

Yet again Valve fails to listen to the customers. Origin has a 24-hour refund period, and Valve is only NOW instituting a 2-hour refund?

For fuck's sake. I've got literally a hundred (100) games that I don't play anymore, cannot play in the first place for whatever reason, or don't want to play anymore 'cuz they suck.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I can now try fallout 3 on Windows 7 to see if I can get it to work.
(are there any mods that will let me?)

The way I made it work was to limit the game to only using 1 CPU core, and disabling ALL autosave functionality. After that the game never crashed. Look on YouTube for a guide to the core thing, can't remember how to do that either.

 

[Nuuu]

FAILURE.

Yet again Valve fails to listen to the customers. Origin has a 24-hour refund period, and Valve is only NOW instituting a 2-hour refund?

For fuck's sake. I've got literally a hundred (100) games that I don't play anymore, cannot play in the first place for whatever reason, or don't want to play anymore 'cuz they suck.

Valve is offering a 2 WEEK refund period as long as you played the purchased game for less than 2 hours.
If you play the game for more than 2 hours or wait for 2 weeks to pass, you are no longer eligible for a refund. Even $60 can be beaten in under 24 hours, leaving it open for abuse.

On a side note: Perhaps there should be refund protection for games that are $3.00 or less. Theres nothing wrong with games that take less than 2 hours to beat as long as they have a matching price to it. $3.00 also isn't really that much to cry "Refund!" over.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm vaguely annoyed by the "2 weeks after purchase" as opposed to "2 weeks after initial install/activation". It's rare that I actually install/play a game within 2 weeks of purchasing it, usually because I buy on sale and playing something else at the time.

I guess now I should try playing games right after I buy them just to see if they're worth keeping.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

For fuck's sake. I've got literally a hundred (100) games that I don't play anymore, cannot play in the first place for whatever reason, or don't want to play anymore 'cuz they suck.

The first reason is exactly what Valve's trying to avoid, people buying games only to return them when they're bored of them. The second reason you would know of within the first two hours of launching the game, and the last one you would probably know of withing the first two hours of launching the game.

 

[Rednog]

[
Very simple.
1) It's just a request, meaning you'll most likely have to go through Steam's customer service, which is hilariously bad. Last I checked it can take up to 48 hours for a response. If for some reason it takes more than a single request/response that 14 day window could come closing very quickly.

That seems not to be the case. On 4chan and other sites a few users have already tried the refund function.
Seems to be an automatic system. All the users got an replay with their granted refund in a few minutes.
Only thing, it seems you have to wait for up to 7 days till the money gets back to your steam wallet.

Yea I had to throw an edit it, I was playing around with it at the same time I posted, and it had looked like a menu for filling out a ticket and the results didn't look clear to me, I'm guessing I had a successful refund, but it really isn't clear when you do go through the process that you've been successful. I guess eventually when I do get the money back that will be a final confirmation.

 

[lacktheknack]

While many have been understandably happy about these new options, <a href=https://twitter.com/hentaiphd/status/605802927299493890>there are some who worry that the "two hour" policy could lead to problems for independent developers. Some indie titles, for instance, have run times that are less than two hours, making it potentially possible to finish them and then still request a refund.

...Then make your game worth playing for more than two hours?

I'm pretty sure if you ask for five bucks and deliver an hour-long game, people will respect that. If you're going to ask for more, make sure it's worth it.

I work at a tech shop that offers refunds for ANY reason for two weeks to one month (depending on the item). People don't use stuff for a month and then trade it in for a similar item over and over to get "free usage and insurance", even though that's a possibility of the system. Why? Because if you deliver a product worth having, people will keep it.

 

[Metalrocks]

would have been very helpful when i got duke nukem forever. and many other titles i want my money back. but 2 hours is not enough. what if i play over 2 hours just to see if i might enjoy the game? so within the 2 weeks i cant get a refund because of that? this fails in my book. part of me wishes i can get a refund on MKX. even when i purchased the retail version but in the end i had to install the entire game from steam.

so far EA is having a much better service. already very happy i got a refund of my purchase of unity. how the site claims that i can get a refund but chatting to a person directly, and i got a full refund with no questions asked. and i didnt even play the game.

 

[Strazdas]

Glad to see valve is complying with the court order they got. Too bad it took them a few years.

Though perosnally i think 2 hours is too short considering in some games tutorial is 2 hours long and getting to gamebreaking bugs takes more.

That said, I just want to know what finally motivated this. Was it GOG Galaxy? Was it the fact that they were feeling pressure from being the largest retailer but still had no refund policy? Was it because of their less-than-stellar relations with the EU court system? Or is Valve just finally starting to listen to its users? I'm super stoked to see them making this change, but what was the motivation?

Well, Last month Gabe Newell did publicly said there is a problem with Steam Support system and they want to change it. Perhaps we are seeing it in action.

You say 2 hours is not long enough. Many say it is already overkill.

There are many non AAA games that are less than 2 hours in length. You could easily burn through the entire thing just to ask for a refund when you're done.

Then these many dont know what they are talking about.

Yes, there are many demos and proof of concept that are shorter than 2 hours. you know, the free stuff.

What do you mean people want you to pay money for this crap.

And i have no problem asking for refund after "finishing" games like Grass simulator [http://store.steampowered.com/app/331200/]

Valve is offering a 2 WEEK refund period as long as you played the purchased game for less than 2 hours.
If you play the game for more than 2 hours or wait for 2 weeks to pass, you are no longer eligible for a refund. Even $60 can be beaten in under 24 hours, leaving it open for abuse.

Origin offers 30 day time window if you played less than 24 hours. Yet, turns out people dont actually abuse their system (according to their own statements).

I'm vaguely annoyed by the "2 weeks after purchase" as opposed to "2 weeks after initial install/activation". It's rare that I actually install/play a game within 2 weeks of purchasing it, usually because I buy on sale and playing something else at the time.

I guess now I should try playing games right after I buy them just to see if they're worth keeping.

Im in the same boat, pretty much none of games i try will even be valid due to 2 weeks as i buy games in advance.

 

[Popido]

I rather pirate a game than risk it with refund abuse, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. The worry for abuse is silly. We're talking about cheap block "art" games and interactive novels. The money that you throw at those, is the money you shouldn't care about. Refund abuse might even be healthy for Steam in long run. If this kind of practice becomes normal amongst Steam's users, buying and refunding games that fall under the 2 hours content, creates a kind of pseudo donation system.

 

[Genocidicles]

If developers are worried about someone beating their game in less than two hours then they should make a longer game with more replayability.